California: Before And After The Drought, And Why It's Only Going To Get Worse

Zero Hedge Tyler Durden on 02/03/2014

While the Northeast is blanketed by another winter storm, California has its own, quite inverse, climatic problems in the form of a historic drought which as Bloomberg reports, is forcing farmers in the fertile central valley region to fallow thousands of acres of fields and has left 17 rural towns so low on drinking water that the state may need to start trucking in supplies. It is so bad that water reservoirs are at about 60 percent of average, according to state water data, and falling as rainfall remains at record low levels.

Unfortunately for our California readers, it is going to get worse before it gets better because mountain snowpack is about 12 percent of normal for this time of year. The following picture of California from January and a year ago shows just this dramatic difference, which confirms that there is little hope for the parched state.

I blame all those wind farms and wind generators, for disturbing the nature wind flow over the Western states.....mankind, can not extract energy from the wind without consequences....there are thousands installed in CA and TX....

Yeah, while Californian’s won’t have anything to drink or bath with, or anything to sustain agriculture, they can at least take comfort in several not-bullet trains to nowhere since billions are being spent for those trains instead of for high-efficiency, self-sufficiency desalination plants like those just finished in Israel which will give that perpetually drought-prone country a water SURPLUS!(Excepting San Diego of course, which has a massive RO plant due to come online in 2016.)

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posted on 02/04/2014 6:36:46 AM PST
by catnipman
(Cat Nipman: Vote Republican in 2012 and only be called racist one more time!)

Carlsbad Cal is building a plant which is slated to open in 2016, 16 years after the proposal was approved by the city. Administrative hearings and court processes in which environmental groups got several bites of the apple trying to shoot it down.

What happens to the salt?

The desalination plant typically uses three kilograms of seawater to produce 1 kilogram of fresh water. The extracted salt dissolves in the excess sea water used in the process to form so-called brine. The brine is returned to the sea where it is diluted again in its natural medium.
Can salt be recovered?

The usual desalination processes do not provide for such recovery. Whereas they concentrate seawater 1.5 times, recovery of salt would require seawater to be concentrated ten times. Under such conditions the first crystals would appear in the brine. This would require a lot of energy and cannot be justified on an economic standpoint. Today whenever a large surface area is available close to a sunny seashore, salt pans, which make use of solar energy, are still the best method of salt production.

Just think of all the weight folks will lose, there’s always a silver lining .. and who knows what they’ll eventually find on the bottom of Lake Tahoe after it dries up. I been wanting to resurface the pool for years.. may finally get a chance..

Forecast near term here in San Jose, occasional spritzes the next few days.. we had dang near a quarter inch last week.. but need 10-12 more to refill reservoirs that exist and don’t.

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